Chapter 4
3 days after Lily confronted Madison, Norah stood beneath the bright lights of a grocery store in Concord, staring at a shelf of baby formula she hoped she would never need.
Her doctor had encouraged her to prepare for every possibility.
Breastfeeding might go perfectly.
It might not.
Normally, Norah would have researched every brand on her MacBook, read reviews, compared ingredients, and made a careful decision.
That morning, she could barely focus on the labels.
Her head had been aching since breakfast.
She told herself it was exhaustion.
She had slept less than 4 hours.
At 35 weeks pregnant, almost everything hurt anyway.
Norah placed 1 container into her cart and moved toward the next aisle.
Then the lights above her seemed to flash.
She stopped.
The floor tilted.
Her hearing became strangely distant, as though the store had suddenly moved underwater.
Norah grabbed the shopping cart with both hands.
“Ma’am?”
A store employee hurried toward her.
“I’m fine,” Norah whispered.
She was not.
Her vision blurred around the edges.
The baby moved sharply beneath her ribs.
Norah slowly lowered herself onto a nearby bench.
“Do you need an ambulance?” the employee asked.
“No. Just give me a second.”
Years of working around frightened hospital families had taught Norah how easily people minimize their own symptoms when they are scared.
Now she was doing exactly that.
She reached into her handbag and pulled out the portable blood pressure monitor her obstetrician had told her to carry.
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The reading appeared.
Norah stared at the numbers.
